She’d never seen recovery like it, especially in a patient still for so long. His brain, dormant for nearly two decades, now produced strings of words, though sounding like nonsense, she knew was more. He could barely lift a spoon, yet she thought she heard “pressure” and “gradient,” as if his professional vocabulary had survived untouched.
Helen didn’t believe in coincidences. Every phrase he half-spoke returned to the same notions: heat, movement, collapse. When she asked where he’d learned those words, he only managed a faint smile, eyes half-open. “Studied…” he murmured, then slipped back under, the rest swallowed by exhaustion.